A tongue-lid pack of this type is disclosed, for example, in International Publication WO 2004/064550. This well-known pack includes an outer box with an open upper end, an inner pack contained in the outer box and having a bundle of rod-shaped smoking articles and an inner wrapper for wrapping the bundle, and a tongue lid hingedly jointed to the outer box and opens/closes the outer box.
More specifically, the tongue lid includes a lid for opening and closing the opening of the outer box and a tongue extending from the lid. The lid and the tongue are demarcated by a fold line. Right after the tongue-lid pack is fabricated, the tongue of the tongue lid is superimposed upon the front wall of the outer box.
The outer box further includes an insertion slit. This insertion slit is formed in the front wall of the outer box. After being opened for the first time, the tongue lid can close the opening of the outer box with the tongue, and is kept in a closed position by the tip end of the tongue being inserted into the outer box through the insertion slit.
As mentioned above, immediately after the fabrication of the tongue-lid pack, the tongue of the tongue lid is in the position where it is superimposed upon the front wall of the outer box and stands out from the front wall of the outer box. For this reason, when the tongue-lid pack is taken out from a wrapping device after being fabricated in the device, or when the tongue-lid pack in a vending machine is distributed from the machine, the tip end of the tongue lid of the tongue-lid pack catches on a transfer path in the wrapping device or vending machine, and the pack lodges in the transfer path in some cases.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a tongue-lid pack that enables a stable release of the pack from a wrapping device or a vending machine, and a blank therefor.